The present invention relates to a structure of a terminal portion of a product with a cover.
As an interior part such as an instrument panel and a console of an automobile, an interior part formed by adhering a cover 55 onto a substrate 51 (hereinafter, referred to as a “covered product 50”), as shown in FIG. 8, is known. The cover 55 includes a cover body 56 and a cushion layer 57 laminated on the back side of the cover body 56. In FIG. 8, a part of the cushion layer 57 is omitted. In a terminal portion of the covered product 50, the cover 55 is adhered onto a terminal portion 52 in a state of being compressed and folded along the top surface, the side surface, and the back surface of the terminal portion 52 of the substrate 51. That is, the cover 55 is adhered onto the terminal portion 52 in a state of covering the back surface of the terminal portion 52 (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-26413). The covered product 50 is arranged at a location near an adjacent component 60 indicated by a long dashed double-short dashed line in FIG. 8.
However, when the cover 55 having the cushion layer 57, as described above, is adhered to be compressed and folded along the top surface and the side surface of the terminal portion 52 of the substrate 51, the cover 55 is bulged at a corner portion 50a at the top side of the covered product 50 due to the elastic restoring force of the cushion layer 57, and the cover 55 is curved with a large radius of curvature (for example, 5 mm or greater). As a result, the boundary with the adjacent component 60 in the covered product 50 is blurred, and thus, the ornamental quality is impaired.
Therefore, it is considered that the size of the radius of curvature of the corner portion 50a should be reduced. In a covered product 50 shown in FIG. 9, the terminal portion 52 of the substrate 51 includes a flat portion 53 and a flange portion 54. The flange portion 54 surrounds the flat portion 53 in a state of protruding to the top side relative to the flat portion 53. Then, the cushion layer 57 of the cover 55 is adhered onto the flat portion 53 of the terminal portion 52. However, only the cover body 56 of the cover 55 is adhered onto the flange portion 54. In the covered product 50, the cushion layer 57 is not folded along the flange portion 54. Therefore, the radius of curvature of the curved cover body 56 is small at the corner portion 50a on the top side of the covered product 50, and thus, the boundary with the adjacent component 60 of the covered product 50 is clearly visible.
However, in the covered product 50 in FIG. 9, when touched, for example, with a finger, the corner portion 50a would feel hard, and hence, tactile sensation is impaired. The reason for this is that a hard flange portion 54 is located on the back side of the cover body 56. Further, during manual work of adhering the cover 55 to the substrate 51, a gap G1 is generated to some degree between the cushion layer 57 and the flange portion 54. When the cover body 56 having a small thickness is used, a part of the cover body 56, that is, a part in which the gap G1 is present on its back side, is pushed by a finger, the part is expanded, and thus, the part is loosened or indented toward the gap G1, which may degrade the appearance.
The above-described problem may be resolved by using a cover body 56 having a large thickness, which, however, would increase the cost. Further, when the covered product 50 constitutes a part of an airbag device and is pressed by an airbag that is deployed and inflated, it is necessary to break the cover body 56. Thus, it is difficult to respond to this request when the cover body having a large thickness and having no tear line is used.